A talk with Dean Kamen | MassDevice.com

July 8, 2009 by Brian Johnson

The inventor of the DEKA arm, the iBOT, the Segway (and others) on healthcare reform, the contrast between the pace of innovation and its adoption by society and how he’d like to be remembered.

Dean Kamen is rarely at a loss for words. In fact, the man is rarely at a loss for anything.

At a recent conference at Boston University, Kamen, 58, took up more than triple his allotted time for a keynote speech

But what else would you expect from the man who, in his spare time, decided to create a “Super Bowl of Science,” because he was tired of seeing pro athletes treated as kings while more and more American kids rejected science outright. Kamen’s pet project, “FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” once held in his Manchester mill building, is now held annually in a packed Georgia Dome; every winning team gets to visit the president of the United States.